Julien CreuzetAlgorithm ocean true blood moves

Presented by Hartwig Art Foundation in collaboration with Performa and DAK’ART

Julien Creuzet, Algorithm ocean true blood moves (2024), choreography Ana Pi. Photo Maarten Nauw
Julien CreuzetAlgorithm ocean true blood movesDak'Art 2024 – Ancien Palais de Justice7 Dec. 2024

Hartwig Art Foundation is proud to present–for the first time on the African continent–Julien Creuzet's performance work Algorithm ocean true blood moves (2023), choreographed by Ana Pi. The performance is a collaboration with Performa and takes place on Saturday 7 December as part of the DAK’ART Biennale of Contemporary African Art 2024 closing programme.

After the successful world-premiere as part of Performa 2023 in New York (November 2023) and the European premiere in Amsterdam at the Dutch National Opera’s Studio Boekman, presented by Hartwig Art Foundation (June 2024), a new adaptation of Algorithm ocean true blood moves comes to Dakar. It has been specially produced for the outdoor space in front of the Ancien Palais de Justice, the biennale’s main location.

Algorithm ocean true blood moves, Creuzet’s first-large-scale performance, continues the artist’s explorations into the history of trade, displacement, and diaspora. In collaboration with Pi, Creuzet draws on a collection of movements by online content creators of African descent. The movements, gathered by the artist from social media over the years, unveil unexpected, yet intimate connections between steps that exist in different times and geographies across the Black Atlantic. From New York to Amsterdam to Dakar, the performance at DAK'ART 2024 completes a significant full-circle journey for Creuzet, symbolically reversing the brutal history of the transatlantic slave trade through a new triangulation of life and vitality. 

The performance was conceived in collaboration with Brazilian choreographer Ana Pi and co-commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation and Performa (read more about the ongoing collaboration here). It features a group of dancers from the Alvin Ailey School in New York and is performed to the vibrations of Shatta, a new genre of electronic Caribbean dancehall music from Martinique.

More information (FR)
CREDITS

Concept, videos, sculptures, and costumes: Julien Creuzet
Choreography: Ana Pi
Performers: Kamani Abu, Sarah Boyd, Sydnie Cooper, Morgan Gregory, Paulin Aby Maindron, Noel Olson and Shota Sekiguchi
Music: Julien Creuzet and Natoxie
Live music: Malou Beauvoir with the special participation of Boris Percus
Julien Creuzet Studio: Scarlett Chaumien (studio coordinator) with artist collaborators Chadine Amghar, Emilien Bonnet
Senior Curator: Charles Aubin
Senior Producer: Julia Simpson
Technical Director: Abdou Diouf
Coordinator: Gacirah Diagne
Team Hartwig Art Foundation: Beatrix Ruf, Annematt Ruseler, Henri J. Sandront, Astrid Schumacher

Special thanks to École des Sables and Institut Français du Sénégal à Dakar for their generous production support. 

Algorithm ocean true blood moves by Julien Creuzet is commissioned by Hartwig Art Foundation and Performa and premiered at The Léman Ballroom, 10 Nov. 2023 in New York. Hartwig Art Foundation presented the European premiere in Amsterdam on 29 & 30 June 2024 in collaboration with Dutch National Opera. The African premiere on 7 Dec. 2024 is presented as part of the special projects IN, 15th Dakar Biennale, The Wake, by Hartwig Art Foundation in collaboration with Dak'Art and Performa.

Julien Creuzet, Algorithm ocean true blood moves (2023), choreography by Ana Pi. Commissionned by Hartwig Art Foundation & Performa 2023. Photo Walter Wlodarczyk.